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TSA Blogs The Unfriendly Skies
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-02-04
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Anyone who has to fly probably has a beef with the Transportation Security Administration and its seemingly-bizarre policies, and the initial flood of comments at the TSA's new blog demonstrated that.
 | | TSA Blogs The Unfriendly Skies |  |
We were pretty certain that once the TSA blog had collected enough traveler invective, published or not, the agency would find an excuse to shutter their attempt to reach out to the online community.
So far the TSA has made it through a first week of blogging. "Please be patient and good-humored as we get underway," TSA administrator Kip Hawley asked in an early post. Hawley hasn't exactly earned the respect of the Internet community at large; asking for civility from people who are stuck in line while watching screeners work over some 80-year-old grandma from Sheboygan didn't seem like a smart move.
They have stuck it out with the blog, even taking on the topic of screening Grandma or a toddler with parents who look like they just stepped out of the pages of Modern SUV Driving Taxpayer (as in, not exactly who we think of as scumbag murdering terrorists at first glance.)
A response to that screening question, as well as one about the three-ounce fluid rule, appeared via video in the most recent TSA blog post. Don't look for a lot of variety in their response.
Everything poses a terrorist threat. Old people? Got to fear them because a 64-year-old grandfather set off a truck bomb in Algieria in front of a UN building. He was an al-Qaeda recruit. Children? Blame the Palestinian Authority.
Security pros have always needed to walk a fine line between convenience and effectiveness. No one wants to go back to the time when screeners at Logan International blithely let armed mass murderers stroll onto airplanes.
The frustrations mentioned in the blog's comments, and there are hundreds of responses now, stem from what people see as a disconnect between reality and perception. Ultimately, TSA wants people to take what they do on trust.
At least they have made an attempt to explain those trust issues, just a little bit. People should still plan ahead for potential delays at the security checkpoints.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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